Facebook Profile Watcher: The New Application Trend

Want to instantly get millions of users to your Facebook application? All you need to do is tell them that the application they are installing will tell them who recently viewed their profile. That’s exactly what hundreds of new Facebook applications are promising and so far the usage among Facebook users has been astonishing. These applications are the latest trick by scam developers to drive an immense amount of traffic while simultaneously placing countless ads on each page. While the developers could argue that the applications are “for entertainment purposes”, there isn’t even a disclaimer which states that the apps are fake. These applications require that users grant them permission to write to their profile wall on their behalf and then immediately post a link bank to the application.

It’s a great trick and now there are tons of applications doing this. So who are the developers behind these applications? Right now it’s pretty hard to determine as the developers are hosting their content on anonymous servers. Despite the developers doing everything to avoid detection, Facebook is actively shutting down these applications. Upwards of 100 applications were shut down in the past 24 hours after attracting millions of users.

All the applications that we were previously viewing (one of which is pictured below) have been shut down, however one other application, Facebook Profile Watcher, continues to operate under a misleading title. Rather than displaying who viewed your profile, the application produces relevant information about your friends, such as the most popular events among your friends.

While there are still legitimate applications that have misleading titles, there are still developers looking to cash in on the “who views my Facebook” trend.